The complexes of the intercalating drugs, adriamycin, daunomycin, and ethidium bromide with nucleic acids will be studied by nuclear magnetic resonance, fluorescence, circular dichroism, and visible spectroscopic techniques. Both the di- and oligonucleotides as well as DNA (native and synthetic) will be used in order to determine the geometry of the complexes, the thermodynamics of complex formation, and the relative preference of the drugs for binding to the various sequences of DNA. Several derivatives of these drugs will also be studied in order to correlate the molecular and electronic structure of the drug molecules to the physical properties associated with complexation, and the physiological activity of the drugs.